Confession #9

I have two nephews. We will call them Steven and Wade. Steven is on the verge of turning 14. Wade is 12. They're stuck in a time warp I think from a bygone time when children were still children at that age. They still play with lightsabers and wear cowboy hats and don't care about being cool and sex is the farthest thing from their minds. They're refreshing after a year in NYC where a 10 year old solicited my girlfriend for sex on the street.

They recently discovered my huge DVD folder book whatever you call it. Its fun to watch them flip through it. They really wanted to watch "Big Fish" and I couldn't figure out how to explain to them it isn't about fishing. They really want to watch "Titanic", but they're parents won't let them yet. Which is silly because I saw it at 14 and my cousin saw it at 11 and we didn't become raging sex maniacs over Kate Winslet's breasts. They want to watch all six Star Wars movies in a row in one incredibly long sitting. I told them we would without thinking, but now I'm like 'Yikes!!!!' and keep finding other things to do. Tonight I distracted them with "Jurassic Park" which they have never before seen.

It was then that I discovered one of the ways in which a movie can makes it mark as a truly great one: you can share it and the act of sharing it expands your own love for the movie. I watched "Jurassis Park" for the first time at my younger cousin's "Jurassic Park" video release party. He dressed up like Dr. Grant and the house was decorated in lots of plants and there was a tent we all sat under to watch the movie. And it scared the crap out of me, and it was FUN.

Tonight it was even more fun to watch it scare the crap out of them. They couldn't sit still. They were screaming at the characters and laughing out loud and repeating lines and they freaked out when they thought Tim was going to get electrocuted. They were on their knees screaming at him and when he fell off the fence they both fell back and went "OHHH!!!!!"

And suddenly I didn't think so poorly of that teenage boy demographic that magically controls so much of what we get to see in the theaters. If I could make somebody react that passionately about something I think that'd be pretty rewarding. Emotionally and monetarily, lol.